The Smithsonian has restored and put the studio model of the NCC-1701 back on display! This video is full of awesome information, and shot vertically so people can complain! There is also a fantastic blog post about the process, and the small modifications they've made.
Via the National Air and Space Museum's blog:
The final stages of the conservation treatment came together in the last few months. In April 2016, the Enterprise model, in pieces, was in the large artifact booth in the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar. Special Advisory Committee member Gary Kerr was dubbed our "oracle," double-checking his notes and diagrams before any detail went onto the model. (There are 952 holes in the faux grill inside the starboard nacelle. He counted.) And Bill George and John Goodson, both of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), worked with Kim Smith of Pulse Evolution to carry out the physical detailing. Together, they were consummate professionals, bringing their expertise into an ongoing conversation with the Museum staff. More than once, the whole team stopped work to discuss the choices being made, assuring that everyone agreed before proceeding.
Photo by Dane A. Penland, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Before this dream team of model painters arrived, the Enterprise model's body had already been expertly cleaned, reinforced, and repaired by Engen Conservation Chair Malcolm Collum, Dave Wilson, and Sharon Norquest (with a much-appreciated assist by Lauren Horelick). Then the whole model (minus the upper saucer paint, of course, which is original paint from the 1960s) was painted with a base color that had been carefully matched by the Museum's Dave Wilson to the production base color that had been uncovered in multiple places on the model in sanding tests.
Kim's first step was mixing the colors that would be used for the weathering, details, and markings. The detail paints were mixed to match the colors that Dave had carefully revealed, and were adjusted and balanced for appropriate contrast and intensity based on comparisons with the historic images.
A full-scale mockup of several of the model's parts (nacelles and secondary hull) provided a way to test paints, techniques, and finishes before applying any paint to the actual artifact. Some eagle-eyed fans even caught sight of the mockups on the Restoration Shop floor and wondered online whether the Enterprise work was underway. The actual artifact pieces stayed in the paint booth, the large artifact bay, or otherwise out of public view through most of the process.
The masking was an art form itself. Bill, John, and Kim layered up Post-it® notes because the low-tack adhesive would be least likely to affect the base paint. And then they created fine edges using masking tapes, burnished to create a seamless transition between colors. The end result, as you can see in these photos, is beautiful – bringing the model back to what it would have looked like at the end of shooting season two, after the Trouble with Tribbles episode.
